How a community garden is helping provide healthy foods in Dayton neighborhood

Kidney has partnered with Kettering Health to create the Unity Garden, a community garden located off of Neal Avenue in the Riverdale Neighborhood near Kettering Health Dayton, formerly known as Grandview Hospital.

A nurse for the past 20 years, Kidney was first inspired to give back after meeting a doctor who worked with Doctors Without Borders while working at Kettering Health Washington Township, known then as Southview Medical Center.

He wanted to use his own passions to help local residents.

“I really love gardening. My background is actually in culinary arts,” Kidney said. “...Food and gardening is kind of my passion, and feeding people. Then when I found out about the refugees in the neighborhood, I wanted to get involved.”

Kettering Health owns the lots where the garden will be growing produce geared toward the local residents. The hospital supported Kidney in getting the soil tested to make sure it was viable for a produce garden, he said.

Kidney has worked with Siebenthaler’s to develop a blueprint for the garden.

“That way we could do it once and do it right,” Kidney said. “We spent the last year working on the blueprint, connecting with the community, reaching out to the people in the community here trying to get closer to the African refugees that are located in our community.”

He plans to grow different types of produce, particularly African eggplants, beans, and squash, which local refugees have told him are familiar to them.

“We’re trying to work with the refugee community to find out what kinds of fruits and vegetables they want to grow,” Kidney said.

The Unity Garden also is keeping local produce from going into landfills. Kidney utilizes compost for the garden made from locally-sourced produce waste from Dorothy Lane Market.

“This past year, the one year that we’ve done it...approximately we’ve diverted about 10,000 pounds of food waste from going into the landfill,” Kidney said.

The neighborhood where the Unity Garden is located is a mix of low-income homes where residents have limited access to fresh food.

Some of the homes in the area were abandoned after the 2008 housing crisis, said Victoria McNeal, president of the Riverdale Neighborhood Association, who added the area is a nice place to live, it just needs some TLC.

“It’s really a beautiful neighborhood. We’re close to the highway,” McNeal said. “...We need people to care.”

Helping your neighbors?

Are you doing something to help your community? Let us know about it and we’ll profile you or your group in an upcoming Dayton Daily News edition. Email Samantha.Wildow@coxinc.com.